Thanks for the clarification.
Again, great thread! It reminds me of some research (read: internet surfing) that led me to realize just how unstable politically Italy was during the
Cold War. It always appeared (to me) that most European states were free from coups and such intrigues. It's amazing how often things like this are
forgotten or overlooked, and I'm glad that people like you are interested enough in such affairs to bring them to light.

Still if he had been a KGB spy or the Goverment had gone full on red then its MI5 job and the military's job to remove the govement and replace them
at least temporaly until a new election is held as it comes under protecting from domestic threats.

Originally posted by mirageman
Major Alexander Greenwood explained to the BBC in 2006 how things prevailed in the mindset of the British elite at the time.

“I came back from a cruise down the Rhine to discover to my horror that interest rates were 15 percent for one month certain, I discovered that the
unions were striking again, the IRA were dropping bombs around. It was no longer a green and pleasant land, England. I thought the BBC would break
down for one thing. I thought the trains would fail to run. London airport would not function anymore. The ports would be stagnant. There would be
complete chaos in the land. You know the people who work in the City of London were not liking it and people who work as stockbrokers usually come
from the best schools and a lot of them have titles and they weren’t liking it at all.
I know the Queen—she wasn’t very happy with Mr. Harold Wilson—but there wasn’t much she could do about it at that time. And Lord Mountbatten
rang up Sir Walter Walker one evening and said, ‘If you want any help from me will you let me know.’ Sir Walter Walker had prepared a sort of
speech, which the Queen might read out on the BBC that asked the people to stand behind the armed forces as there was a breakdown of law and order and
the government could not keep the unions in control.”

In October of 1974 Wilson went to the polls and secured another majority in spite of MI5 constantly feeding the media with stories that he was a
Soviet spy.

A vital part of the disinformation campaign against Wilson was “Clockwork Orange,” an operation run by the Information Policy Unit (IPU) working
from the Army Press Office in Northern Ireland and ran in conjunction with MI5.
Colin Wallace was the MoD press officer involved in “Clockwork Orange.” He was later framed and imprisoned for manslaughter after trying to expose
this operation. Wallace confirmed that the IPU briefed the press with false information linking Wilson and other Labour MPs to Soviet intelligence and
the IRA.

“They believed they were the guardians of the United Kingdom. They felt that the political machinery was incapable of giving them support or
introducing the policies that would enable them to deal with that threat.”
“The information that I received was related to political unreliability. It was quite clear that this information was designed not just to discredit
him (Wilson) in a general sense, but bearing in mind that we were in a period running up to a general election, that that information would, most
likely, have had a fairly major impact on how the public viewed him.”

The British occupation of Northern Ireland became a focus for the most reactionary forces in UK society and measures developed there came to be
employed in Britain itself. The security measures designed to combat the IRA was also directed against British workers.

Wilson already knew about Wallace’s activities in 1976. He told the journalists, Penrose and Courtiour ,to speak to him, but they failed to follow
up the lead as they were getting deeper into the murder accusations surrounding Jeremy Thorpe. Had they done so, Wilson’s suspicion that the
security services were attempting to smear him would have been confirmed. During the 1970s MI5 was spending more time watching British trade unionists,
peace campaigners and political activists than the Soviets themselves.
By the end of the 1970s, they had files on more than 2 million UK citizens. According to Peter Wright over 30 intelligence officers had authorised
leaks about Harold Wilson and other senior Labour MPs conspiring in a plot to get rid of the Prime Minister.

Despite all of this intrigue, officially, Harold Wilson resigned due to ill health in 1976. The first signs of what we now know as Alzheimer’s
disease were setting in. It could be that he had become somewhat paranoid. However the British Establishment were well aware of plots against his
government. The real driving force was coming from an even more paranoid and rather odd collection of people employed within the intelligence agencies
who thought communism had infected Downing Street itself.

Despite the vocal protestations of the loud, but small minority within trade unions and workers groups, the British Communist Party enjoyed little
support from the great majority of the public. The term ‘British Intelligence’ had seemingly become an oxymoron in 1970s.

The threat of a right-wing military coup with the support of the British military seems laughable now but was it back in the middle of the 1970s?

There was a "Job evaluation" exercise in the British Army 1969. It was linked to a new pay scheme but also identified Army trades which would lend
themselves to sustaining power supply etc if there was a general strike. There was talk of a military group called "Hail Force" that would deploy
reservists into key industry partly to detect and deal with saboteurs.

The fear of a communist takeover had grown to paranoia in the upper strata of society. Their "Plans" were technical nonsense and there probably
wasn't an engineer or scientist amongst this command.

A later problem, that conspiracy theorists and even expert pundits seem to have missed, was that IRA/INLA/Soviet/Communist penetrated the so called
private armies (like Unison) and said "Than you so much for exemption from police inquiry and the generous terms of my police issued firearms
certificate" So what Walter Walker, Robert Butler, Airey Neave etc created was a security nightmare as brighter people (such as OIRA at ceasefire ?)
simply put people in.

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